The sun was out for our final game of the season, which, sadly, was also the final South match for several of our key players. It’s goodbye and best of luck to Bex, Meg, Liz D and Lizzie B – we’ll miss you. Fortunately they all went out on a high as they and the whole team had a great game. It was quite an evenly matched game. Meg had a great game in defence, making lots of well-timed tackles, and making some good passes out and up the line even when under pressure. Bex as always was leading the press up from and supporting the attack. Liz finished her final South game by scoring our second, equalizing, goal. Lizzie was making some great linking runs and passes in the midfield. Player of the match went to Georgia who was excellent all game, with great interceptions and running. Ceri won lemon for barging into a young opponent. We were happy to welcome back our star goalie after a few games away, complete with fancy helmet ears, and she made some great saves to keep us in the game. Stortford’s first goal came from a scramble across the goal line, which included some goal line clearances by Claire and defenders, and the ball rebounding off the post. Stortford claimed the ball had crossed the line, but South were certain in didn’t and it was a tricky one for the umpires to judge – in the end goal was the decision. Their second goal was also dramatic as Claire faced her first penalty flick after the ball had hit a defender’s foot on the line. Fortunately Eleanor and Liz were on hand to even it up for us, and we all left the pitch happy and ready for pizza and the end of season social.

Alternative version by Ceri Richardson:

I would like to preface this match report by saying that at the end of the game I did not know what the score was, I was honestly naïve enough to think I couldn’t possibly get lemon again, but you’ll understand why I did shortly.

The L6’s were up against Bishop Stortford 8’s for a friendly and final game of the season this sunny Saturday. With a few last-minute dropouts and people not understanding what a meet time actually means we all arrived with just enough time to have a quick spelling lesson, a warmup, and a hit about before the game.

The game started and hockey was played. I believe one of the reasons I remember so little about the first half was because I was convinced I wouldn’t get lemon as I wouldn’t do anything as silly as our GK Claire who openly and honestly admitted that she purposely kicked the ball out over the back line giving our opposition a long corner… short corner?? I don’t know the rules. Luckily, Bishops Stortford didn’t make the most of their opportunity allowing Emma to continue making fantastic runs up the wing, swerving past any opposition that dared to tackle her much to the delight of our spectators cheering her on. We had a few shots in the first half, and we definitely put on the pressure but alas no attempt came to fruition.

Half time came about and Lou offered herself up as lemon admitting that she forgot the half time sweets which is the main reason we all turn up. After a pep talk from our coach Chris, we came to the collective conclusion that maybe sweets weren’t everything and if we remained focused and used the space on the pitch we were in with a chance of winning.

The second half started and our lovely umpire Jo needs to go to Specsavers as he allowed our opposition to go 1-0 up even though the ball didn’t go into our goal. This led some LOM votes to be given to “the ball that definitely didn’t go into the goal” and “the fact that we don’t have goal line technology”. If anything, this encouraged our defenders Meg, Lou and Georgia to work harder and play by the book to lessen Jo’s opportunity to make any other questionable decisions. This leads us to the most dramatic part of our game that I was unfortunately the star of. I would like to state for the record, contrary to what the little slips of paper might suggest, I am not a child abuser. I just want to clear my name, what happened was I went in for a strong tackle and the girl exclaimed that I “elbowed [her] in the back” (the umpire responded saying that I was playing hockey (which was the validation I needed) and that I did nothing wrong). I successfully got the ball, made a great pass and we got a solid opportunity to get a shot on goal. 20 seconds later however the girl started crying and the whistle blew… I am not a bad person, I asked if she was okay, I apologised (even though I did not elbow her!!!) and I got blanked and somehow the decision was overturned, she got the ball and then after getting 5 and play resumed, I tackled her and got the ball back as it was rightfully mine. I would also like to state that she was not 14! … to my knowledge. Anyway, once I tackled the opposition Lizzie and I did some beautiful back and forth passing to get the ball to Eleanor who successfully got the ball all the way past the goal line and into the goal.

We had a few more opportunities on goal, I made a pass to Nicky who was presented with a 1vs1 against the keeper and Nicky hit an incredible strike which would’ve been better if it was on target. We had a few attempts down the left wing with some passing between Charlotte and Bex but unfortunately, they turned into a bit of a scramble with us all in the D wondering what else we could do to will the ball into the goal. Through sheer will power we collectively summoned the ability to get the ball to Liz who slotted it past the keeper and into the goal (note Jo that these balls went all the way over the line). Our 2-1 lead didn’t last too long as somehow Stortford got another goal past Claire.

The whistle blew signalling the end of a game which left us with a 2-2 draw. I’m proud of the girlies and once again the score at the end of the game doesn’t accurately depict the hard work and determination we put in. Shout out to our POM Emma for fantastic all-round play with other POM mentions going to: myself, Georgia, Claire, Lizzie, Liz and Bex. Also shout out to other human LOM mentions of Lizzie and Liz. Finally, special mention to our supporters we <3 you. After a match debrief it was onto the pub for the social and those committed to the cause continued to Vinyl, I got home at 6am, I’m sorry this is late and a shambles, read my other report, it’s better.

On to the next season ladies, hopefully I’ll see you there!